In the past few weeks, there have been, not one, but THREE significant brewery announcements on the prairies. The first, right after the new year, was Swift Current’s Black Bridge Brewing announcing it was closing its brewhouse and taproom and moving production to Saskatoon’s 9 Mile Legacy Brewing. Then at the end of February, Saskatoon’s Paddock Wood Brewing announced it was merging with Regina’s District Brewing and closing its production facility. A couple days later, the third announcement dropped as Olds College announced they were suspending their brewmaster diploma program and closing the associated brewery.

There is no sugarcoating this trio of announcements. They are bad news. And continued evidence that the craft beer industry is navigating some difficult times, as my year-end State of the Industry post concluded.

Each has its own particular sad angle. Paddock Wood was one of the OG Saskatchewan craft breweries (following Great Western and Brewsters) and anchored the industry in that province, opening in 2002. Original owner Stephen Cavan, who sold the company a few years ago, spun the brewery out of his mail-order homebrew supply business. I don’t think there was a homebrewer in the region who didn’t thank the stars for Cavan and his tenacity. For years Paddock Wood defined Saskatchewan craft beer, and it is a real tragedy to lose them.

I don’t think you could find better people in Kari and Clayton Stenson, who doggedly carved out a solid brewery in rural southern Saskatchewan. Their Milk Stout was a regular on my rotation. I am sad I never made the point of venturing out to Swift Current (or as my Medicine Hat-residing father-in-law used to call it “Speedy Creek”) to see the brewery firsthand. At least that milk stout is likely to continue to exist, as the brands are in the capable hands of Shawn Moen at 9 Mile.

And as for Olds College, while we had seen this coming for a while (they temporarily halted new admissions last year), it speaks most loudly about what is happening in the industry. As I reported when it opened back in 2014, it spoke to the robust growth of craft brewing in western Canada. It was the first brewmaster program in this part of the country, and second only after Niagara College. Over its 12 years, it has graduated more than 300 professional brewers, most of whom found employment in the beer industry on the prairies. There is no way the Alberta craft been industry could have exploded the way it did without the stream of new graduates coming out of Olds. But, alas, when the growth in new breweries fades, as has happened in the past couple years, there are no jobs for these graduates to go to, and the economic viability of the program is undermined. And that is I think what happened here.

All three closures are a symptom of the broader economic challenges facing craft beer in Canada. They are just a small slice of the developments we are seeing across the country; a story being told over and over again. However, if we take a step back I think a more nuanced situation emerges.

Both Paddock Wood and Black Bridge brands will continue, at least for the time being, at their new locations. While they are, essentially, contract brands now (and thus get removed from my database of breweries), in both cases the tightness of the Saskatchewan beer scene allowed for a softer landing. Moen describes the Stensons as “friends”, and District can preserve much of Paddock Wood’s legacy. This is a similar arrangement to what we saw recently with Apex Brewing moving to contracting at Born Brewing (as I reported here) and Blindman’s partnership with Dandy (read about it here).

I think breweries are trying to get creative in managing the challenges. Sure, some will have to just shutter and walk away, but more frequently we are seeing two (or more) breweries join forces to become stronger, or devising creative corporate and production relationships to see things through. I think this is a positive sign amidst a difficult time. It is evidence that craft beer on the prairies continues to be different than most industries.

It is harder to find a silver lining in the closure of Olds. That one just smacks of cold, hard reality. The industry isn’t what it was ten years ago, and post-secondary has been having a very rough ride in the past few years due to government cutbacks, reductions in foreign students and cost pressures. I can understand why Olds College decided to pull the plug. Still, it is a big bummer.

I suspect this is not the last bummer-like post I write this year. But hopefully I can find some positive news to share with you as well. Time will tell.